More Than You Know
by Tursipiel Althins
Summary: During Don't Cry, it's all too obvious what Marshall is thinking and feeling, and even Stan shines through a bit. But what about the other characters? Rated T for language later on.
1. Jinx

Disclaimer: I do not own In Plain Sight or any of the characters and whatnot.

So, this is an idea I got from a conversation in what I regret to say is the only IPS forum on this site…so sad…but anyway, much thanks to Iluvdolphins and shadowstorm13 for the idea!

**Chapter 1: Jinx**

The phone rang, harsh and grating against the sounds of the night. Jinx Shannon answered it with her usual cheery "Hello?" Stan's voice came through the telephone. He sounded grim.

"Ms. Shannon, you may want to sit down," he said to her.

"Why?" she asked, her tone suddenly accusatory. "What's wrong? Did something happen to Mary?"

Stan sighed audibly. "Ms. Shannon, your daughter has been shot."

The words themselves were like gunfire. She couldn't feel her legs. In fact, her entire body had gone numb. How could this be? Stan's voice continued.

"She's on her way to the hospital now." He paused before continuing. "Her condition is critical."

Jinx's world was spinning out of control. She couldn't fathom it. How could Mary, her little girl, who she had raised on her own, have gotten into this? How could she have gotten into any situation this dangerous? She could feel the tears well up in her eyes. Her hand went limp and she dropped the phone on the sofa next to her. Why couldn't she protect her own daughter? She felt like a terrible excuse for a mother.

_Jinx walked outside to see her little girl sitting on the pavement, crying. Mary was clutching her knee and leaning up against her father's car. "Oh, baby girl, what happened?" asked Jinx, swooping over her like a mother goose protecting her gosling._

"_I – I fell and – and s-s-scraped my knee and now it's – it's bleeding!" the little four-year-old sobbed. Jinx took a close look at the scrape on her knee. It wasn't bad. A quick rinse and a Band-Aid and it would be fine._

"_Shush, my baby girl. It's OK. It's gonna be OK," she whispered to her daughter as she picked her up and carried her inside._

Why couldn't she help her now?

Brandi walked into the room just then and saw her mother with her head in her hands, the phone lying next to her. She walked over and put an arm around her mother's shoulders as she picked up the phone to see who was on the other end. Jinx looked up in time to see her other beautiful little girl's face change almost instantly from mild concern to a mask of shock and grief.

"Thank you," Brandi said into the phone. "We're on our way." She hung up the phone and turned to her mother. "Mom," she said, kneeling down in front of Jinx to look her in the eye. Jinx met her gaze. "I know this is hard, but Mary needs us now. We have to get to the hospital, OK?" Brandi only just managed to keep the tears in her eyes from spilling down her cheeks.

"OK," Jinx whispered back, standing up and heading for the door. "But we need to tell Raph, too."

--

Jinx and Brandi walked into the waiting room, closely followed by Raph. One look at the worried look on Stan's face and the positively distraught expression Marshall wore told Jinx all she needed to know. She was numb now, and all they could do was to wait.

She took her seat in the waiting room. She heard Raph and the Hispanic woman talking about Mary, and it occurred to her that she had no idea who this woman was. Eager for any news on what happened to her daughter, Jinx immediately started drilling the woman for any and all information she could gain. Only when she was satisfied that she had gotten all she was going to get from her did she stop the interrogation.

Jinx looked around the room. Brandi was trying to find anything she could to distract herself. Raphael, the poor man, looked like he was still in shock, like it hadn't really registered yet what had happened.

And then there was Marshall. Marshall looked like he was in more pain than anyone. He looked like…well, Jinx knew that look.

"Marshall, could I talk to you for a moment?" she asked politely. He looked surprised when he looked up at her, but he conceded and followed her out into the hallway, out of everyone else's earshot.

Jinx didn't look at him. She may not have always been a very good mother, but she knew how to play this game. She was looking at a poster on the wall. It was a diagram of the human heart. She stared at it for a moment, planning exactly how this was going to play out.

"Ms. Shannon?" Marshall asked uncertainly.

"Funny, when you think about it," she said.

"Beg your pardon?"

"The heart, I mean. It's kind of funny." She paused for effect. "I mean, it's what keeps us alive, keeps us going. It's what lets us feel and lets us be. It's what makes us human. And some of us bury it while others wear it on their sleeves. But the bottom line is, no matter how tough or strong you think you are, your heart is still so fragile." She looked up at Marshall. "You already know that, don't you?"

Marshall glanced aside, not quite willing to meet her gaze. Jinx could see the tears he had barely kept suppressed welling up in his eyes once more, and she knew she had him. "You know how fragile the heart can be, and how easy it is to break. So I'm giving you a warning."

Marshall's gaze snapped up to meet hers. "A warning?" he asked.

"Yes. Now I may not be strong, and I may not look like much, but believe me when I say that if you don't listen to what I'm about to say, we may just find out exactly how fragile your heart is." She paused again, this time to calm herself down. "I see the look in your eyes. I know how much she means to you. But I need to know how much you're willing to give for her."

Marshall looked straight at her, tears in his eyes and a look of furious determination on his face. "If I could trade places with her right now, I would. If I knew this was going to happen, I would have gladly taken that bullet for her." Jinx could see he truly meant it.

"But that's all hypothetical," she said, her eyes never leaving his, motherly protection meeting fierce determination. "I'm talking about reality."

"What do you –"

"I mean when she wakes up, what will you really be willing to sacrifice for her?" Jinx couldn't even bring herself to think the word _if_ instead of _when_. "Will you still take a bullet for her? A shot to the heart? Even if it isn't fired from a gun?"

Jinx saw the understanding in Marshall's eyes. He knew exactly what she was talking about. "Ms. Shannon, I love your daughter. I love her beyond anything I've ever felt before. I would give anything to be with her forever. But what I want, more than anything else, is for her to be happy. I want to know she's where she needs to be. And if where she needs to be isn't with me, then I swear to you now, on everything that I am, that I will never lay a hand on your daughter."

Jinx looked at him for a moment longer. She could see the love and the truth burning in his eyes. "That will be all," she said, walking past him and back into the waiting room.

Now that she was done playing protective mother, there was nothing she could do but sit and wait in endless agony. At least while she was drilling Marshall, she had something else she could focus on. Now, however, she had nothing to focus on but the terror and the pain.

_Mary, hold on_, thought Jinx as she sat and waited for news on her little girl's condition. _Just hold on for us, OK? I love you, my baby girl. I love you more than you know._


	2. Brandi

Here comes chapter 2. Yeah, chapter 2! Woo-hoo!

By the way, I did some editing to chapter 1. I just felt something needed to be added in, so go back and read the new and improved chapter 1 if you like!

**Chapter 2: Brandi**

Brandi walked into the room to see her mother sitting on the couch, her head in her hands. She walked over to her and saw the phone sitting next to her. She put her arm around her mother and picked up the phone. "Hello?" she asked.

"Brandi?" came Stan's voice through the phone.

"Yes," said Brandi.

"It's Stan. Brandi, something terrible's happened." He paused. "Mary's been shot."

Brandi felt like she couldn't breathe. "She's on her way to the hospital now."

"Thank you," Brandi managed. "We're on our way." _Oh, God, no,_ she thought. _Not Mary. Please, not Mary._ She knew she had to hold together for her mother. After all, someone would have to drive to the hospital, and she sure couldn't do it if she was sobbing. She knelt down in front of her mother to look her in the eye. The distraught mother met her gaze. "Mom," she said, "I know this is hard, but Mary needs us now. We have to get to the hospital, OK?" She was struggling against everything inside her to hold together for her mother.

"OK," her mother whispered back, standing up and heading for the door. "But we need to tell Raph, too."

Brandi helped her mother up so she could get her jacket. Then she headed down the hall to Raph's room. She knocked twice and called out, "Chico?" She heard movement from inside, and then the door opened to reveal a shirtless Raph. He had just gotten out of the shower after a long day of selling cars.

"Brandi?" He immediately looked concerned at the look of fear and desperation on Brandi's face. "What's wrong?"

She barely stifled a sob before saying, "Mary's been shot." With that, she broke down and put her arms around Chico for support. He stood there in shock, holding the sister of his now dying fiancée.

--

They walked into the waiting room and saw Stan and Marshall sitting there. The look on Marshall's face was enough for Brandi. She started crying again. "Oh, oh, no!" she sobbed.

"She's alive," Stan assured them. "She's in surgery."

"What happened?" asked her mother, sounding desperate.

"We're still trying to sort it out," was Stan's reply. "All I know right now is she was shot in the abdomen."

Brandi was torn apart. "Did they get the guy who did this?"

Stan looked at Brandi with almost fatherly concern when he told her, "Not yet. But we will. I promise."

Chico put his hands on both women's shoulders and walked them toward the chairs while Stan continued to talk to Marshall. Brandi barely even heard Chico when he told her to sit down. How was he holding together when the woman he was supposed to marry was somewhere in this hospital, possibly dying?

--

It had been a while since they had been moved to the other waiting room. She had been ignoring everything around her. She had heard the conversation between Chico and the Hispanic woman like she was listening from another room. She had snapped out of her stupor for a moment when the doctor came in to report on her sister's condition, but then she sank back into it. She was so lost in her thoughts, she didn't even notice when her mother and Marshall left the room.

How could this have happened? How could Mary be dying? How could her big sister, the one who had always been there for her, suddenly not be there? Her whole world was collapsing around her. Mary had been the only constant throughout her life, the only one who would always help her, could always fix things, no matter what. What would happen if suddenly she wasn't?

_Mary walked over to her five-year-old sister and put her arm around her. Brandi was crying. "What's wrong?" Mary asked._

"_Th-the m-m-monsters!" she whimpered. "They're – they're under my bed!"_

"_It's OK," said Mary. "I know how to get rid of them." Mary ran off to her room. When she came back a moment later, she was clutching a little brown teddy bear. "Here," she said, handing him to her sister._

"_You – you're giving me Biscuit?" she asked, her tear-filled eyes shining in five-year-old wonder. "But –"_

_Mary cut her sister off. "He'll stay up all night and watch over you while you sleep. He'll keep the monsters away."_

_Brandi took the bear and clutched it to her chest. She looked up at her big sister. She didn't say anything, but the look in her eyes was enough. "You're welcome," said Mary, and she headed off to bed._

Where was Biscuit now? Where was Mary's protection? How was Mary supposed to survive when she had already given everything she had to protect everyone else? Brandi was beyond noticing the tears that rolled down her face.

--

Still in a state of numbness, Brandi sat there doing a crossword. At least she could do something to occupy the tiny part of her mind that wasn't crashing and burning over and over again. God, what was going on? This was so messed up. Her sister, her protector, was lying alone and unconscious in a hospital bed while she sat there with her mother and doing a crossword. Chico was sitting there looking almost bored. He barely looked interested in what was going on. Meanwhile, Marshall looked like it was _his_ fiancée lying in there with a bullet in her stomach. Why was her world turning upside-down?

_Mary,_ she thought, _please pull through this. Please. Please. You can't leave us here. You can't leave me, Mary. You need to come make this all make sense. We need you. I need you. More than you know._


End file.
